Miriam Badyrka is The Doodler

Doodle of the Week

I chose this week's doodle because of the little animals in the panel doodle.  I find this group interesting because of how it trickles away into randomness. 

It is a perfect visual of the way my mind seems to work these days. I can't seem to think in a clear and directed fashion for very long anymore. I start out strong and focused, and then I drift. 

It is the perfect state for the weather. It has been foggy. Fog always makes me feel like I am in some sort of limbo. I feel like time is suspended when it is foggy. Everything goes still and just waits.

More Inspiration and Procrastination

It has been awhile since I have posted anything but doodles. So I thought it is time to show you what I have been looking at on the web so I can clean out my bookmarks.

Click through the galleries of the From Atoms to Patterns exhibition. In 1951, scientists and manufacturers collaborated to produce patterns based on x-ray crystallography. The patterns were translated into textiles and surface decorations for a variety of products. It pretty much sums up the 50’s aesthetic for me.

I am in love with Decopix! If it is Deco, they’ve got it here. This is a rather sad photo of an abandoned gas station, but I love the Mobile Pegasus. Ah, nostalgia.

The Textile Blog. How cool is that? I ran across it while researching the Atelier Martine. 

Paul Poiret , the fashion designer, founded the Atelier Martine when he branched out into textiles, wallpapers and carpets. He didn’t hire designers, he hired teenage girls with no art training. He figured that would be the best way to achieve that Folk Art feel. Rather ingenious of him, and the designs are charming. Love and Thrift has a nice piece about it too.

Ben Butler is amazing. His work made me gasp. Do yourself a big favor and look at his work.

 The galleries at sytes.org are a wonderful resource. Somehow they are easier for me to look at than flickr. Look at this collection of spiral images.

Doodle of the Week

I can't remember the last time I used a fish scale pattern, in fact this might be a first. I do use the shape (a fish scale, a petal or a hump) all the time, but I don't typically use it in an all over pattern.

Another notable element is the use of the leaf or seed shape in the design. It is especially apparent in the large leaf shape in the middle left.

Plus, I have to point out the lack of symmetry in the medallion in the top right. This is very unusual, I wonder why I did that? I like the off balance look of it though.

We are having a wonderful, and strange, dry spell up here in Portland. It is quite chilly, but who cares? It is dry! Which means, of course, that I am going to go outside. Have yourself a lovely weekend!

Catch Up Doodles

This is going to be a long post, so get comfy.

Now that the holidays are through, the snow is gone, the daughter is back to college and everything has settled down to a dull roar, it is time to catch up on all those things that get shunted to the side.

I owe you doodles, 4 of them.

This should have been your doodle for Dec. 26th. I hope you had a happy holiday! We had no water downstairs, because I put potato peels down the garbage disposal which backed up all the sinks on Christmas eve. That was fun. And not the time to be looking for a plumber!

I love this doodle. It is the usual leaves, pods and floral medallions, but they are just so graphic. There is a wonderful mix of negative and positive shapes in the patterning. It feels bold and strong to me.

This should be the first doodle of the New Year. Best wishes for good things in 2009!

I am going to make a confession: I kind of hate New Years. I don't drink, I am not a party gal. There is something depressing about the whole affair. So, I go to bed at 10 o'clock New Years eve. I find there are plenty of people who light fire crackers and wake me up at midnight. I am glad in a weird way that they do it, because I don't entirely miss the change over to the new year.

This is a very odd doodle, it stood out from the pile. Not the hieroglyphs, that is normal, but the two that appear to be made up of letters and numbers.

After staring at them for a bit, one appears to be the numbers from zero to 10. The other might be all the letters of the alphabet (with a few extra X's thrown in for good measure). If you take the time to decipher them, let me know if I am right.

Just to prove that I am not kidding about the hieroglyph thing, here is a full page of them. This should have been your doodle for Jan 9th.

Do you think that I will ever provide myself with a Rosetta stone? 

And, finally, I will leave you with the doodle from last week:

 

This group doesn't have the graphic boldness of the first group. It is busy, with lots of movement. I really like the energy in the patterning. It looks like I must have been happy when I was doing it.

Whew! that is done. I will be back on Friday. It will be nice to settle back into a routine.